Orange Cupcakes with Orange Crème Cheese Frosting

Summer brings in season a lot of fresh and delicious fruits. Oranges come in many varieties and each have a distinct taste of their own. I enjoy the flavor of this citrusy fruit and like experimenting with it. This time I made Orange flavored cupcakes with a slightly tart frosting to off-set the sweet from the cupcakes. It was a match made in heaven!

For the cupcakes I used my yellow cake recipe, adding the necessary flavors.

You will need:

2 ½ cups All-purpose Flour

1 ¼ cups Milk

2 ½ tsps Baking powder

½ tsp Salt

2/3 cup butter

1 ¾ cups Sugar

1 tsp Orange extract

2 tsp Orange zest

2 Eggs

Preheat oven to 375F. Line a two 12-cup muffin pan with cupcake liners. Stir together flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside.

In a mixing bowl beat butter with an electric beater on medium to high speed for 30 seconds. Add sugar, vanilla and orange extracts and the zest; beat until well combined. Add eggs, 1 at a time and beat and beat one minute after each addition. Add flour mixture and milk alternately to beaten mixture, beating on low speed after each addition just until combined. Using an ice cream scoop pour batter into lined pans; and fill 2/3rd way. 

Bake for 15-18 minutes or until a wooden toothpick comes out clean. Cool cupcakes in pan for 5 minutes and then invert onto a cooling rack and cool the cupcakes upright before frosting. 

Orange Crème Cheese Frosting:

½ cup Unsalted butter, at room temp

1 cup Crème Cheese, softened

1 ½ cups Powdered Sugar, sifted

2 tbsp Orange juice, squeezed fresh

1 tsp Orange zest

Cream the butter and crème cheese using an electric beater or in the bowl of a stand up mixer until smooth, about 2 minutes. Add the orange juice and zest. Beat for 30 seconds and then slowly add the powdered sugar. Beat until well combined. Taste and add more sugar if needed. 

The icing can be spread on the cupcake using a small off set spatula or you could use a piping bag and tip #22 to pipe the icing.I also used silver dragees on top.